After Attack on Congress, Mayawati's Appeal to Voters for Rahul and Sonia Gandhi With an Explanation

New Delhi: Coming out with an endorsement for Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi for the first time this election season, BSP supremo Mayawati on Thursday asked supporters of her party and the Samajwadi Party to vote for the Congress in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

“Mujhe poori ummeed hai ke hamare gathbandhan ka ek ek vote har halat mein dono Congress neta ko milne wala hai (I have full confidence that each and every vote of the gathbandhan will go to the two Congress leaders)," she said at a press conference in Lucknow even as she dismissed any chances of her party forming an alliance with the Congress. “The whole country knows that we have not, nor we will have any sort of alliance with the Congress," she said.

Amethi and Rae Bareli - the twin fortresses held by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi – will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election on Monday. The UP gathbandhan has not fielded any candidates from the two seats, the only constituencies out of 80 from where it is not contesting.

The BSP chief explained the gathbandhan did not put up candidates in the two seats to weaken the BJP and the RSS and to ensure that Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi do not get tied up in campaigning for their own seats here and can concentrate on the rest of the nation.

Mayawati’s appeal to voters comes just two days after she lashed out at the Congress and accused it of colluding with the BJP to hurt the gathbandhan to deny any claims that the grand old party has a tacit-understanding with the SP and BSP.

BJP & Congress are cut from the same cloth. I urge voters that they should not vote for Congress, they should instead vote for the gathbandhan candidate and ensure that BJP is defeated. We all saw how Rahul hugged PM in the parliament both parties are in collusion but they will be wiped out of UP,” Mayawati had said on Thursday.

Priyanka Gandhi’s statement that the Congress has fielded campaigns to play spoiler for the BJP had led to speculation of an understanding.

During the poll campaign, the BSP supremo has repeatedly attacked the Congress to dispel notions that the party has any truck with it as the Congress votes - though in small numbers in each constituency - do not get transferred to Mandal parties that have pursued strong identity politics.